Editing Politics (section)

=== State ===
[[File:Map of unitary and federal states.svg|thumb|{{legend|#00e000;|[[Federal state]]s}}{{legend|#0000b0;|[[Unitary state]]s}}{{legend|#e1e1e1;|No government}}]]
All the above forms of government are variations of the same basic [[polity]], the [[sovereign state]]. The [[State (polity)|state]] has been defined by [[Max Weber]] as a political entity that has [[monopoly on violence]] within its territory, while the [[Montevideo Convention]] holds that states need to have a defined territory; a permanent population; a government; and a capacity to enter into international relations.

A stateless society is a [[society]] that is not [[Government|governed]] by a [[State (polity)|state]].<ref name="Routledge2">{{harvnb|Craig|2005|p=14}}.</ref> In stateless societies, there is little [[Centralization|concentration]] of [[authority]]; most positions of authority that do exist are very limited in [[Political power|power]] and are generally not permanently held positions; and social bodies that resolve disputes through predefined rules tend to be small.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ellis |first1=Stephen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fLAWMGqKMb4C&pg=PA198 |title=The Mask of Anarchy: The Destruction of Liberia and the Religious Dimension of an African Civil War |publisher=NYU Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-8147-2219-0 |page=198 |via=Google Books |access-date=4 May 2020 |archive-date=24 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224213821/https://books.google.com/books?id=fLAWMGqKMb4C&pg=PA198 |url-status=live }}</ref> Stateless societies are highly variable in economic organization and cultural practices.<ref>{{harvnb|Béteille|2002|pp=1042–1043}}.</ref>

While stateless societies were the norm in human prehistory, few stateless societies exist today; almost the entire global population resides within the jurisdiction of a [[sovereign state]]. In some regions nominal state authorities may be very weak and wield [[Failed state|little or no actual power]]. Over the course of history most stateless peoples have been [[Cultural assimilation|integrated into the state-based societies around them]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Faulks |first1=Keith |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_fjCczhvWj0C&pg=PA23 |title=Political Sociology: A Critical Introduction |publisher=NYU Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-8147-2709-6 |page=23 |via=Google Books |access-date=4 May 2020 |archive-date=16 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116055203/https://books.google.com/books?id=_fjCczhvWj0C&pg=PA23 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Some political philosophies consider the state undesirable, and thus consider the formation of a stateless society a goal to be achieved. A central tenet of [[anarchism]] is the advocacy of society without states.<ref name="Routledge2" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Sheehan |first1=Sean |title=Anarchism |publisher=Reaktion Books |year=2004 |location=London |page=85}}</ref> The type of society sought for varies significantly between [[anarchist schools of thought]], ranging from extreme [[individualism]] to complete [[Collectivism and individualism|collectivism]].<ref name="slevin">{{cite book |last1=Slevin |first1=Carl |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordconcisedic00iain |title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2003 |editor1-last=McLean |editor1-first=Iain |chapter=Anarchism |isbn=978-0-19-280276-7 |editor2-last=McMillan |editor2-first=Alistair |url-access=registration |name-list-style=amp}}</ref> In [[Marxism]], [[Marx's theory of the state]] considers that in a [[post-capitalist]] society the state, an undesirable institution, would be unnecessary and [[Withering away of the state|wither away]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Engels |first1=Frederick |url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/soc-utop/index.htm |title=Socialism: Utopian and Scientific |year=1880 |chapter=Part III: Historical Materialism |quote=State interference in social relations becomes, in one domain after another, superfluous, and then dies out of itself; the government of persons is replaced by the administration of things, and by the conduct of processes of production. The State is not "abolished". It dies out...Socialized production upon a predetermined plan becomes henceforth possible. The development of production makes the existence of different classes of society thenceforth an anachronism. In proportion as anarchy in social production vanishes, the political authority of the State dies out. Man, at last the master of his own form of social organization, becomes at the same time the lord over Nature, his own master—free. |via=Marx/Engels Internet Archive (marxists.org) |access-date=4 May 2020 |archive-date=7 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210207174438/https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/soc-utop/index.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> A related concept is that of [[stateless communism]], a phrase sometimes used to describe Marx's anticipated post-capitalist society.